Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-08-11
THREE MILES BELOW MOBILE.
by MAURICE THOMPSON.

by MAURICE THOMPSON.
On Government street, in Mobile,
stands an old, dingy, vine mantled man
sion which ATTRACTS the attention OF the
passer by on account of certain atmos-
phere of gloom and an lndescrIbable CT
feet of withdrawal and excluSlveness sug-
gested by the close drawn window-shades,
the lowering shadows, and the prevailing
stiffness and silence of the place. LIZ Is
stately house, though rambling and IN
pretentiOus in It's architecture, standing
we'll back from the wide stone sidewalk
and embowered IN grandly spreading oak
trees. Its owner and Servants excepted)
it's sole occupant Is very old and very
decrepit woman, Mile. Rose Jourdon, the
last OF a great family.
The collapse of a great family is the
most pathetic phase of social history and
it ofttimes chances TO be the most tragic
as well. In this instance, however, the
tragedy is far in the past, held in the
memory of but few of the present dwell
lers in Government street, and the old
homestead appears to keep as solemnly
aloof from all it's environment as does
the solitary woman within from the peo-
pie who surround her; wherefore there Is
little probability of any wrong being done
by the publication of this bit of old time
history and romance. Go to Government
street, if you like, and l dare say you can
not find the place describe, SO singuIary
strong is the monotone of local color III
that beautiful and dreamy Old thorough
fare.
No matter what changes have come to
the exterior Of the house, within it Is ex-
actly as it was fifty-ive years ago. There
are the same carpets, the same tall,
straightforward mahogany chairs, the
same stately clock on the stair Iandin e,
the same curtains at the windows, the
same low, broad, sofas with their curious
ly-fgured embroidery, the same old silver
fretted and pearl-set guitar in the corner
of the spacious drawing room, the same
massive table chairs and side-board in
the dining room-indeed, everything the
same as when Rose Jourdon, at the age of
%, was the acknowledged bella of Mobile.
A period of fifty five years may be
short or long, according to the point of
view from which 1t is measured, but in
any case it brings great changes between
It's opening and its close, to the girl who
enters it at p and leaves it at II. I say
girl in speaking of Rose Jourdon when
she was %, for the reason that [ saw
portrait of her made when she was In
her bloom, and under 1t was a curious
monogram containing the legend: ''R.
j., EFT. %" It was The face and bust of
a passingly beautiful but slender and
glrllsh young woman, whose pure, noble,
earnest eyes and sweet, firm mouth, indi
Gated high and lovely character. 1t
was southern face, but it was not of
that sort which artists and poets have
loved TO embody In their works as typical
of tropical and subtro plcal feminine
beauty. There was no darkness and
shadoWy fire and half suppressed Saphic
passion In it; but there were serene self
poise, tender warmth, lofty pride, and
aeep if not broad capacity for love ex-
pressed in every feature. She was neither
dark nor light, but a striking effect Of
both was given out by her bright brown
hair, her twilight-gray eyes, and her
purely fair though by no means white
skin, which showed just tough of rose
on cheek and chin. The portrait was
painted abroad, in Rome perhaps, by
some master hand, but have been told
that it IS far less beautiful than was Rose
Jourdon at the time she sat for it.
FIVE should cross the threshold of the
old Jourdon mansion this morning, we
should find a slender, emaciated old wo
man sitting in a comfortable chair in an
attitude OF waiting butnot of expectancy.
Her face is shriveled, her hair is white
and thin, her hands shake as she once
more unfolds a creased, worn, and yellow
sheet of paper. 1t is not a love-letter,
this time aundiced relic upon which the
sunken eyes of Rose Jourdon rest with
such pathetic. heiplessness. 1t might
have been a loye-letter. All, might have
e crI1Id
the shadows of the phrase! 1t is no
6berless septimentality that discovers IN
human experience, and especially in the
experience of women here and there, the
doings of merciless. strangely sinister,
and unmerited destiny.
Romance is often the highest and
truest realism. Idealize as we may, so
that we keep strictly within bounds of
nossioility. and at last we shall discover
in actual life a deeper reach and a loftier
lift than our dream has comprised. The
realist insists upon the commonplace and
nsual: but the commonplace and usual
of exterior things are no more real than
tho commonplace and usual of interior
THINGS. nor may any of these be called
MORE real than the cOrrelative unusual
and extraordinary things. Moreover, 1t Is
.ovestion how common and usual certain
exneriences are. Human nature is secre
tive and stubbornly uncommunicatl1 e
with regard to its bitterest and mos
dramatic conditions and predicaments
The heart of woman! Who shall ever
onita end it out? What realist may say
DO, have made full transcript of m!
heroine's hearth" or "See, this is what I
girl would do under the stress of a might!
moral strain?" Poor little reallst, n
can not truthfully say what he hlmsei